Top officials of Ukraine’s ex-Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk’s pro-reform government that served six months from August 2019 until March 2020 have spoken up on why their efforts to change did not succeed. The remarks came during an online event organized by the Atlantic Council, an American think tank, on Nov. 5.
Honcharuk along with his ex-subordinates, Tymofiy Mylovanov, a former economy and agriculture minister, and Serhiy Verlanov, a former head of the state tax service, have complained of the pressure coming from oligarchs as well as from the Kremlin. They have also accused Ukrainian law enforcement of going after reformers in a bid to punish them.
Such behavior of Ukraine’s new ruling elite is destructive, said Melinda Harding, deputy director of the Eurasia Center at Atlantic Council. “Do not put criminal charges on people if you want a talented team,” she stressed.
The discussion was taking place in the middle of Ukraine’s Constitution Court crises that erupted in late October after the court effectively destroyed Ukraine’s anti-corruption system.
Watch the Atlantic Council webinar: Why is reform hard in Ukraine?
Reforms impossible?
John Herbst, a former United States’ Ambassador to Ukraine, a director of Eurasia Center at Atlantic Council, and a moderator for the event, started the discussion posing a question to Honcharuk: “Since you and many of your ministers were removed in March the good reform progress of President Zelensky’s administration seems to have stalled. What happened?”
“Because of the huge influence of the Kremlin on Ukraine and the huge influence of oligarchs inside Ukraine,” the former prime minister said.
According to Honcharuk, the problem his government faced was the inability of the courts to protect reforms, which consequently scared away investors. Lack of foreign money injections into Ukraine’s financial system, in turn, retarded economic growth which meant no salary and pension increase.
“It creates the circumstances when you just cannot show to the people fast and real impact, real progress,” Honcharuk complained.
“Oligarchs and Kremlin control the media and it affects public opinion. This president pays huge attention to public opinion and is influenced by public opinion very much,” he said.
The lack of visible breakthroughs for half a year in the office was the reason why his government was forced to resign on March 4, according to Honcharuk.
When Herbst asked whether it would have been possible to press forward with all the necessary reforms if Honcharuk’s Cabinet of Ministers was not fired, Mylovanov responded: “Absolutely!”
“There were tons of ups and downs, but when you now talk to MPs they are saying: ‘Those were the golden times. We hate you, because we represent Kolomoisky but those still were the golden times’,” Mylovanov said of his conversations with the lawmakers openly lobbying for the interests of Igor Kolomoisky, one of the most powerful oligarchs in the country.
“That is what I hear from Kolomoisky people nowadays in Kyiv,” he continued, implying that even anti-reformers are now praising the former government’s professionalism even though they are ideological rivals.
Reformers at risk of charges?
Herbst then set the new tone for the discussion and asked whether his guests felt at risk of prosecution by Ukraine’s acting law enforcement who got infamous for going after the former officials.
He turned to Verlanov and asked him if he views himself in danger. Verlanov, who led the State Tax Service from May 2019 until April, said he does. After he was fired abruptly, Verlanov was soon accused of tax evasion and money laundering. The Prosecutor General’s Office handed him a notice of suspicion on Oct. 20.
Before this happened he had enjoyed the reputation of an honest official while he was walking the State Tax Service through a transformation.
“The law enforcement system became a tool for revenge. It is a populistic move of the government and the presidential administration in order to increase their ratings. A lot of reformers, among them myself, became under attack,” Verlanov said.
“Moreover we can see that the legal grounds for the majority of such cases are so-called legal garbage,” he continued referring to the accusations against himself and also against ex-president Petro Poroshenko, who has faced over a dozen criminal investigations since Zelenksy wrestled the president’s seat in 2019.
“Basically the system makes a veil against the reforms. So, if you want to change something, you will be punished,” Verlanov said.
Constitutional Court crisis
Then the speakers moved to discuss the recent massive attack on anti-draft reforms that had taken place in late October.
The Constitutional Court destroyed Ukraine’s entire asset declaration system for state officials, a crucial element of the nation’s fight with corruption on Oct. 27.
Zelensky immediately stepped in to fix the problem and the public access to the online registry of officials’ asset declarations was resumed about 24 hours after the shutdown.
However, the court soon announced its plans to assess the constitutionality of other critical reforms including banking reform and land reform. The first one helped to liquidate over 100 insolvent banks. The latter allowed Ukrainians to buy land for agricultural needs. To prevent the judges from overturning reforms Zelenky filed a law bill to fire the judges. This move evoked both fierce criticism and support. A number of lawmakers submitted their own solutions to the crisis.
“We do not know how this is going to play out,” said Harding. “None of the options are good. Ukraine really screwed up big time.”
“A lot relies on this decision. It is not just the ability to travel without a visa in the European Union. It is at least $5 billion in aid from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union and it could be another $30.3 billion in early repayment requirements if they cannot get it right,” she continued.
Harding stressed that Ukraine’s path to reforming is difficult and to succeed it needs political will, pressure from the streets, and international financial institutions.
“Ukrainian politics is endlessly frustrating and the tragedy is that we know what to do and we never do it,” Harding concluded.
